A Los Angeles native, Darryl Munyungo Jackson was surrounded by music from a young age. Influenced by his musically diverse family, in high school he began to discover a love for swing and Latin jazz. Saving up money from his newspaper delivery job, Munyungo Jackson bought his first pair of timbales. In this interview, he talks about how this early purchase led to his first paid gig, travel all around the world, and working with legends such as Miles Davis and Stevie Wonder.

Born into a singing family in Venezuela, over the years percussionist Diego Alvarez has developed a mastery of the cajon. In this episode of We Are Rhythm, he talks about getting the gift of music from his mother, deciding to move to Spain at age 18 to develop his craft, and his new life in Los Angeles.

A fan of music from a very young age, percussionist Kevin Ricard has taken his versatile style everywhere from touring to TV. Beginning with his early life in Santa Monica, CA., Kevin talks about how he found his passion for percussion, the multicultural influences of modern musical genres, and his decision to plant himself after years of touring. He has performed on American Idol, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and many more.

Kevin also recently collaborated with Latin Percussion to design a signature cajon. You can find it online at LPmusic.com.

North Carolina native and NYC resident Shirazette Tinnin sits down with Joey DeLeon to chat about her journey as an active clinician, educator, mentor, composer, a certified personal trainer and published author. They explore the origins of her name, her early influences, developing a deep love for African music, and how she ended up in Santa Monica, CA on a scholarship.

Camilo Molina-Gaetán is a multi-percussionist from New York City and is considered to be one of the most promising and versatile percussionists of his generation. He sits down with Jhair to talk about starting to play percussion at the age of 4, the importance of discipline and understanding the history behind the styles of music they play, and Camilo tells Jhair how playing with Eddie Palmieri changed his life. And of course, Camilo tells Jhair who is in his fantasy quintet.

Jhair is joined in the studio by multi-talented drummer and percussionist Terry Silverlight. Terry talks about touring with his older brother's band at the age of 14, learning about latin music by listening to the radio, and why being in the room with other musicians is the best way to develop your own style. And of course, who would be in his fantasy band.

Terry is a jazz, pop, rock and R&B drummer, composer, and producer who has recorded on hundreds of albums. And with three drum books under his name, he's also an author and instructor. Silverlight has also written, produced and arranged pieces for television.

In this episode, Joey sits down with musician Karl Perazzo. Born and raised in San Francisco, Perazzo has long toured with Santana and has appeared on several of Carlos’ albums. He has also recorded and played with Malo, Dizzy Gillespie, Pete and Coke Escovedo, Prince, Mariah Carey and John Lee Hooker, as well as Latino greats Tito Puente and Ruben Blades. With LP, he created the LP Karl Perazzo Signature Series Timbales.

In this final show of 2019, we’ve pulled the top 10 episodes together to showcase some of the artists we’ve featured this year.

Joey meets up with Hector in LA, on day four of a sold out 7-night run of shows at the Forum. Hector is a percussionist and multi-instrumentalist from Sonora who has been playing with Mexican pop rock group Mana for 13 years.